


Bluffing Beauty

by Spinofflady



Series: Race to the Edge [5]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-27 00:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8380861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinofflady/pseuds/Spinofflady
Summary: Desiring to know how Catia plays her game, Hiccup challenges her to a game of Maces and Talons, offering a valuable prize to the winner. She agrees, bringing her own prize to the stakes, one Hiccup is determined to win.





	1. Chapter 1

“If we don’t do something now, she might kill him.”

Fishlegs’ point caused a silence to fall on the room of arguing dragon riders. Everyone had been surprised when Hiccup had arrived home without Toothless, and were even more shocked to find that he had voluntarily left his dragon there.

“I know, Fishlegs,” Hiccup replied. “But we can’t afford to make another enemy right now.”

“It’s a little late for that,” Snotlout scoffed, plopping down in an empty chair.

“I hate to agree with him,” Astrid put in, “but she seemed pretty upset. I don’t think there’s any way we can avoid siding against her. She’s just too unpredictable to trust.”

Hiccup sighed, nodding. “I just wish we knew what was really her. At first she was she was sweet, and then she turned into some kind of…monster. It’s like she has a split personality or something.”

“Maybe she’s actually really nice and we just met her on the wrong week,” Heather suggested, leaving everyone but Astrid clueless as to what she meant.

“Heather, there’s moody, and then there’s having two polar opposite personalities,” Astrid put in. “Besides, _I’m_ not even that moody, and girl, let me tell you, I have reason to be!”

Heather laughed. “You do have it pretty bad.”

Both girls finally picked up on the confused looks they were earning from the others, although Ruffnut appeared to be finally catching on.

“So…” Snotlout drawled, attempting to change the subject back to one they all understood. “Plans, anyone? Hiccup, you’ve said, like, five things tonight, I hope there are some ideas knocking around in your head. Maybe that would give it a use.”

Dagur smacked the back of Snotlout’s head from his place in a chair behind him. He too had hardly said a word, probably because he didn’t want to upset Heather. Their relationship was currently at a very delicate balance, and no one wanted to off center it. Heather’s patience, or lack thereof, was easily tested when it came to her brother.

“I wish I had a plan,” Hiccup groaned, rubbing his forehead tiredly. “I just don’t know how to make one. I know how Viggo plays. He likes to outsmart us. So any plan involving him has to use the mind. I knew how you worked, Dagur, so it was easy to plan against you. I have no idea what this girl is like, except for the fact that everything is expendable to her. If we violate one of her terms, we will regret it.”

“Then you’re first plan should be one to see what her real character is like,” Fishlegs piped in again. “We need to see how she wages war; to see she plays offensively or defensively, brains or brute force.”

“Oh! Then I have the perfect plan!” Tuffnut jumped up excitedly. “Now, I’m sure you all have been wondering why I’ve been sitting here so quietly.”

“We weren’t actually,” Astrid said matter-of-factly.

“Don’t be so negative, Astrid.” Tuffnut blew her comment off with a wave of his hand. “I have many years of experience in the practice of psychology, during which time I have found that all these plans are practically useless. It is far more beneficial to simply ask what one desires to know, rather than to spend time plotting and devising.”

“While that might be true, Tuff, I don’t think it will work.” Hiccup rubbed his eyes, realizing he’d had only a few hours sleep in two days. His brain was so sluggish he could hardly remember what they were even talking about. Something about a plan…oh yeah! They needed a plan to figure out what Catia was really like. He needed a way to figure out what she was like as competition; what her battle strategies was.

Everyone was beginning to argue again, but amidst the chaos and noise, Hiccup’s attention was drawn to the Maces and Talons board that was pushed out of the way in the corner. One had to know strategy in order to even play the game, let alone win it. Quick wittedness was a must, as was the ability to adapt to unseen problems. It was a brain game; that was one of the reasons he liked it. So did Viggo, though he liked it a little too much. The game in itself had told them so much about Viggo they may as well have just asked him everything they wanted to know.

“Maces and Talons!” Hiccup shouted suddenly, the room quieting. “That’s it! That’s how we’ll figure what Catia is really like!”

No one said a word. Astrid finally broke the silence. “Granted, I don’t know how to play Maces and Talons, but I don’t see how it will help us.”

“Well, first of all, you actually have to have been taught how to play. That tells us something right away. Someone spent the time to teach her warfare. Second, you have to have good strategy. If she just randomly moves pieces around, either she’s not very competitive or she doesn’t have a plan. Every person plays this game a little bit differently. Viggo goes to extreme lengths to make you either over think or under think his plan. I have a tendency to-”

“Be predictable,” Dagur jumped in, a grin lighting up his face.

“Yes, be predictable. I make the same moves to many times, causing my opponent to see what my patterns are. But back to the original topic. All I have to do is challenge Catia to a game of Maces and Talons; she won’t suspect a thing!”

With a little more explanation to the twins and Snotlout, the plan was put into action. An invitation was written up, stating the winner would be awarded a chest of gold and the Night Fury. The message was attached to Deathcrasher and sent that night.

Confident that Hiccup’s plan would work, everyone went to bed, except for Hiccup and Dagur. The two sat at the game board for hours, trying to outsmart and outplay each other. Both gradually started to play worse and worse as time wore on, and Dagur finally announced that he was going to bed.

Hiccup, being Hiccup, stayed right where he was. Worried that Catia might actually be able to beat him, he stayed up studying the board, playing out every possible scenario in his head. He had nodded off several times, but ignored his need for sleep. There were so many different plays in this game! He tried to recall every possible way to call a peace-pact. He calculated the fastest was to kill the traitor so the game could be won. He memorized every move he could think of, playing them out of the board.

“Hiccup Haddock the third, what are you doing?!”

He turned at the sound of Astrid’s voice, finding her in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

“Making sure I don’t get beat tomorrow,” he muttered sleepily, “and I could ask you the same thing.”

“I came up to get some water,” Astrid replied, walking over,” but I’ve been asleep for the past few hours. Unlike you.”

“I don’t have time to sleep. I still have more than fifty plays to analyze.”

“I don’t care. You are falling asleep as we speak. You are never going to win tomorrow if you don’t get some rest.”

Hiccup sighed, knowing she was right. He could hardly keep his eyes open.

“You can have until I get my water to pick all these notes up, and then I am putting you to bed myself.” Astrid walked into the add-on kitchen and filled her water canteen, Hiccup slowly piling his notes up and setting the board back up.

Astrid came out of the kitchen, just in time to see him tiredly fumbling with a piece. “Good grief, Hiccup,” she chuckled, “you’re so you’re tired you’ve lost your fine motor skills!” She helped him clean up, and finally escorted him back to his hut.

Exhausted, he slapped his things down on the desk and literally fell into his bed.

Astrid walked over to blow the candle out. “Good night,” she said, and with a quick breath extinguished the flame. “And that means go to-” she glanced over her shoulder. “Sleep.” She smiled as she realized he already was.

. . .

Morning came early, bringing a nervous air with it. Nothing was accomplished throughout the day, as no one could force themselves to stay on track. The majority of their time was spent scanning the horizon, searching for some trace of Catia or a message from her.

Everyone had finally gathered in the clubhouse, bored but too jumpy to do anything. Would she come? Even if she did, would she come in peace?

The riders wordlessly waited in the main hut. Hiccup had been pacing back and forth for at least twenty minutes until Astrid told him to stop, though Heather had to tell her to quite tapping her fingernails on the table. Five minutes later, however, Astrid reminded Heather to stop chewing on the ends of her hair.

Time passed and the only words spoken were to tell someone to stop doing something. Heather wanted Dagur to stop whittling because the dust from the wood shavings were making her eyes itch. Snotlout wanted Tuffnut stop playing with Chicken because it made her cluck too much. Ruffnut wanted Fishlegs to stop writing in his notebook because the scribbling noise was giving her a headache. Astrid wanted Snotlout to stop flexing his muscles because it was repulsive.

The tension that surrounded them was more than taking its toll. Even the dragons were nipping at each other and the Night Terrors who tried to start a game of tag.

Late in the afternoon, the dragons on watch duty sounded an alarm. Everyone rushed outside, smiling as they caught sight of a dragon flying toward them. Strange, it looked like a Night Fury. It seemed odd that Catia would take the time to learn how to fly a Toothless when she had her own dragon.

Catia landed in front of them, swinging her leg over to dismount. Her thick black braid swung limply side to side as she moved. Hiccup resisted the urge to reach out and pet Toothless, as something seemed slightly off about him.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Hiccup started somewhat coldly, afraid of what she might do. “I hope you have brought a strategy with you.”

“That and more,” Catia replied smoothly, adjusting the satchel that was slung over her shoulder. “I have brought another prize to the stakes. Something I think will interest you greatly.”

“Oh?”

Catia opened her satchel and produced a cylindrical mechanism that Hiccup immediately recognized as the Dragon Eye. She smiled slightly at his surprised reaction.

“How did you get that?” he asked, shocked that she could manage to get such an important item away from Viggo. That must be why she was so afraid of him.

“I’ve heard you call this the Dragon Eye,” Catia answered, passing it from hand to hand. “It seems to be of great value to you, as is the Night Fury. I happen to be in position of this second Dragon eye, and Viggo knows nothing of its existence. Win the game, and it’s yours.” She passed it to him.

“I haven’t won it yet.”

“Oh, I know. But I want to have the joy of taking it back when you don’t.”

“Then let’s begin,” Hiccup said, trying not to show his nervousness. Toothless and now a spare Dragon Eye were at stake. He glanced around for his dragon, who had mysteriously vanished during the conversation. It stuck him as odd that Toothless didn’t seem one bit excited to see him. It also seemed odd that Meatlug was following Catia into the clubhouse, and not Fishlegs.

The two sat down at the game board, and the confidence with which Catia sat down and started to arrange the pieces showed she clearly knew what she was doing.

“Would you like first play?” Catia asked calmly, offering him a chance to get ahead.

“If you don’t want it,” he replied, jumping on the lead she was giving him. How was she so calm?

Catia shrugged and passed him the chief, and he set it down on the board, claiming an island as his base. The objective of the game was to capture the other player’s chief, but one could only do that once the traitor had been killed and the opposing island was captured.

Each piece could only make a certain number of moves in a play, the Shield Maiden being the most powerful piece on the board. She could change islands up to three times per play, capturing any piece in her path. However it was impossible win the game with the Shield Maidens on the board, so they were often the first target.

Catia seemed reluctant to put her Shield Maiden on the board. She was currently playing with only her chief and a few warriors, and Hiccup easily captured two of her pieces in a single play.

He slowly began to realize that he had a chance to win. If he could take out his traitor, which was actually one of her pieces, he would be just one more step ahead. He started putting his plan into action, taking advantage of her blank plays—using a play to reposition her pieces.

He was creeping up on his traitor when Catia started to laugh. She studied the board for a minute, then looked up at him, a slight smile on her face. “I know you can play however you want,” she started, “but that’s just suicide.”

Hiccup glanced down at the board, realizing that while he had been pressing in on her traitor while his island was being threatened by two of her warriors. His island for the traitor was not a swap he was willing to make. He quickly captured the warrior closest to his piece.

“Thank you,” Catia quipped lightly as she tapped his piece with the other warrior, dramatically knocking it over before she took it off the board.

Hiccup swallowed. She had just fooled him into giving up the protection of his island! Those blank plays weren’t blank at all! She had cornered him, and then made it seem as if she didn’t want him to make a bad play. He had never felt so stupid in his life.

The game continued, and although Hiccup kept his guard up waiting for more sly plays, Catia never made the attempt again. She did succeed in capturing three more of his warriors, leaving him with only two. He used a play to put his healer on the board, hoping to be able to get one of them back.

Catia immediately blocked the path of his healer, obviously trying to keep it from getting to her island. A healer only had three moves per game, though it couldn’t be captured. Hiccup jumped the piece blocking him, but immediately noticed that Catia bit her lip to hide a smile. She obviously knew something he didn’t, and he could only conclude that the play was a bad move.

He moved the healer back two spaces, and once more to corner her traitor again, which was also in his way.

“Dead.” Catia said flatly, snatching the healer off the board. “That was three moves.”

She’d done it again; fooled him into thinking he was making a bad play. And somehow, he’d actually fallen for it.

The game went on, and Catia slowly but surely gained more and more of his pieces. He was finally left with only his Shield Maiden, his island, and his chief. He still had a chance though, as Catia only had her chief and a warrior.

Hiccup moved his Shield Maiden, chasing her chief back a few spaces. Catia eyed his unprotected island. Knowing where she was headed next, he moved back, finishing his play.

Catia immediately pulled out her Shield Maiden, which Hiccup had completely forgotten about. She set the piece down; trapping every piece he had left. She wasn’t trying to take his island in her next move. She just made it look that way so he would move back where she could win in one play.

There was nothing he could do. Knowing the game was over, Catia held out her hand for the Dragon Eye. Stunned, Hiccup passed it to her.

“Keep the gold,” she said smugly as she walked out. “I have what’s really worth something.”


	2. Chapter 2

“What happened?” The other riders ran over to Hiccup, shocked that he hadn’t won.

“Why in the world did you move back like that?” Dagur asked, his arms folded. “That cost you the game!”

“She bluffed,” Hiccup replied simply, shrugging. “I thought she was giving away her next move, but she was actually doing it just to make me do what she wanted.”

“Did you at least find out her battle strategies?” Astrid pressed.

A smile spread across Hiccup’s disappointed face. “That is the only thing that worked.”

“Enlighten us, then.” Heather encouraged not so sweetly.

Hiccup plopped down in a chair, picking up Catia’s Shield Maiden, turning it over in his palm. “She’s an actress,” he started, looking up. “She makes you believe what she wants you to by acting. She wanted me to move my piece back, so she acted like moving it forward was a bad move. It was subtle, _very_ subtle, but I thought it was a natural reaction to what I was doing, and worked with it.

“She also saved her Shield Maiden up until the very end, when it would do the most damage. She’s patient. She’ll wait until just the right moment to spring something on you that you could never avoid. She was willing to give up almost all of her pieces just to trick me. She’s not one to make an impulsive move that will get her into trouble. She will wait for the right time, and if she wants to speed the process up, she does a little acting to get you where she wants you.”

“Either that or she just put on another fake persona to make you think that’s how she roles.” Astrid put in skeptically. “My mother always used to tell me never to trust someone with fake tears. Meaning that if that someone could act well enough to have fake tears, they could probably make you believe anything else, too. If Catia could make you think she was naturally giving away her next move, that meant she’s smart enough to know what you would do, have enough strategic skills to counter it, and bluff her way to winning. You can’t trust someone like that, Hiccup.”

Hiccup was about to reply, but Tuffnut cut him off. “Uh, guys? This chest is full of rocks. Didn’t we promise Catia gold?”

Fishlegs groaned. “Yes, Tuffnut, we promised her gold. It just so happens, however, that we don’t have any gold, because Viggo has it all.”

“Well, you guys are lucky she didn’t want it.” Ruffnut snickered at her brother’s answer.

“Which poses another problem,” Heather put in, trying to turn the conversation to something more serious. “If she decides that she wants the gold, it’s rightfully hers. She won, and if she comes back looking for it, we’ve got to have something to give her.”

Hiccup sighed, setting the piece down on the table. “I know. But we don’t have any gold. Berk doesn’t have any gold.”

“Well, then,” Snotlout put in smugly, “you should probably stop promising it to people or we are going to end up owing them our heads!”

“Calm down, Snotlout,” Astrid told him dryly. “With a head like yours, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Heather high-fived her, and Snotlout slouched out of the clubhouse, muttering about how he would get Astrid back. The twins continued on about whose head was most important, until Fishlegs silenced them. Heather left to start on dinner, and Astrid tagged along. Hiccup and Dagur were eventually left alone, silently pondering the previous events.

“So,” Dagur started, breaking the silence. “What are you going to do now?”

Hiccup shrugged halfheartedly. “I don’t really know.”

“You mean you don’t have a plan?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Wow,” Dagur shook his head. “I bet that’s a nice blow to your pride. All that humiliation of losing the game and now you don’t even have a plan. Not to mention you were beaten by a girl. I mean, you might have an excuse if I had beaten you, but a girl? What are the odds, am I right? Who would’ve thought she’d even know how to play Maces and Talons, much less beat you at it?”

“Thank you for summing that up.”

“Anytime, brother.”

“Dagur, do you know what sarcasm is?”

“Your favorite means of communication?”

Hiccup scowled at him. “I’m not that sarcastic.”

“I can sum you up in two words. One of them is sarcastic.”

“And the other?”

“Predictable.”

“I should have known.”

“It’s true, though. But by predictable, I mean loyal. You never leave your friends, and I of course, learned to use that against you. Here’s the deal, Hiccup. Everyone is predictable in some way. Viggo is predictable in the sense that he is always a few steps ahead of us, and that he is a game player. Ryker always wants a fight. You can always predict something about anyone.”

“If you know something about them and they don’t act like someone totally different every time you see them.” Hiccup’s shoulders slumped and he propped his head up in his palm.

“Come on, Hiccup. You’re smart. What do know about Catia?”

“Nothing!”

“Sometimes you’ve got to think like the bad guy to beat the bad guy. You do know some things.”

Hiccup drew in a deep breath, leaning back in his chair, thinking hard. “Well, she never wants to take on more than a few people at a time. She didn’t mind us being with her until more people showed up.”

“Good! Now, how did she get you to leave?”

“She threatened to kill Astrid.”

Dagur squeezed the bridge of his nose, exasperated. “Analyze that.”

“I guess she knew that we would never put Astrid in danger and used her as leverage. Come to think of it, she’s used a lot of stuff as leverage.”

“There you go!” Dagur encouraged. “What else do you know?”

“I already know she bluffs a lot, and is pretty good at brain-play. I think she speaks more than one language, so she’s obviously smart.”

“So, with that knowledge, what kind of plan do you think you need?”

Hiccup sat for a moment, then jumped up. “I’ll be back,” he called over his shoulder as he ran out the door.

“I’m going to guess the plan that just popped into your head,” Dagur muttered with a chuckle.

. . .

Hiccup rushed back to the clubhouse, sure that his plan would work perfectly. The others were gathered around the table eating dinner when he ran in.

“Guys,” he called ecstatically, “I’ve got a plan!”

“I think you’ll have to change it,” Astrid told him seriously. “Catia left a message.”

Hiccup’s face fell. “What does it say?”

“We don’t know yet,” Fishlegs muttered, scribbling something down on a piece of paper. “She wrote it in two different languages, alternating between Gaelic and Latin every other word.”

“What?” Hiccup walked around the table leaning aver Fishlegs’ shoulder to see what he was doing. Spread across the table were several charts and a few books on the languages. He was in the middle of conjugating a word to figure out what tense it was in.

“Have you found what ‘vinet’ means yet?” Fishlegs asked Heather, who was scouring a book next to him.

“No,” she muttered, turning the page. “These words are anything but alphabetized.”

“Why in the world would she bother putting every other word in a different language?” Hiccup asked looking over the note, realizing that the alphabet changed with each word as well as the language.

“I don’t know,” Fishlegs replied, flipping back a few pages in one of his books. “It seems odd that she would take the time to do that, but what’s even more amazing is that I haven’t found a single mistake in her translation yet. The conjugation is flawless, even switching back and forth between the two. She obviously knows both languages well.”

“Got it!” Heather exclaimed suddenly. “It means came or went.”

“And going by the ending of the word, I think it’s safe to say it means ‘come’ in this case.” Fishlegs finished his translation within a few minutes and passed the paper to Hiccup.

“To whom it may concern,” Hiccup read, “You have proposed a competition to me, and now I have one for you. Send your leader to me; I have a test for him. If he passes, there will be a weighty reward. Come, alone, before nightfall if you accept the challenge. But know if you do not, there will be consequences.”

“I wonder what she wants,” Astrid wondered aloud, holding her hand out for the message. Hiccup passed it to her, and she read it over again.

“Are you going to accept?” Fishlegs questioned.

“She didn’t give me much of a choice,” Hiccup shrugged, sighing. “If I don’t she still has Toothless, and it is very likely that he has something to do with the ‘consequences.’”

“Then you better get going,” Heather urged, glancing outside. “There’s only a few hours of sunlight left.”

Hiccup nodded grabbing one of her yak chops off the table, his mouth watering at the smell.

“And be careful,” Astrid warned. “Catia is very flaky. Keep your distance.”

“Don’t worry,” he smiled, reaching back across the table for a loaf of bread. “I don’t plan on getting any closer than I have to.”

. . .

Hiccup swallowed as Catia’s island came into view. The sun was just starting to set as he landed on the beach with Windshear. It had been decided that he should ride her since she didn’t trust Catia at all and could easily free him from anything Catia might try to imprison him with.

The Razorwhip snarled as Catia came into view, her hair lose and wearing nothing more than the simple, sleeveless gray dress. She walked steadily toward him, her confident stride showing she was entirely fearless.

Hiccup was sure she could see the dagger hidden under his leather armor. Not that it would matter if she saw it; she could outfight him any day. She could outfight his dad.

“You came,” Catia said, looking him over, appearing impressed.

“Was I not supposed to?” He asked, hoping she would speed up the process.

“Oh, yes, you were. I just wasn’t expecting you to. You see, the message was the test. I wrote it in one of the most complicated ways I thought you could solve.”

“Are you saying I passed?” Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows, confused, as he really hadn’t done much.

“Yes,” Catia answered matter-of-factly. “On one condition.”

“And that is?”

Catia stared him straight in the eyes, pure pleading showing in hers. “Promise that you will tell no one of my whereabouts.”

“That’s it?”

“You don’t understand how important this is!” she snapped, her voice cracking with emotion. “You must tell no one!”

“Deal. Your location will not be shared.” Hiccup placed a hand on Windshear’s neck as the dragon growled at Catia’s passion.

“Do I have your word on that?”

“I wouldn’t have said ‘deal’ if I didn’t mean it.”

“Very well. Here is your reward.” Catia turned to face the trees, whistling. Two Night Furies came barreling out, but Hiccup’s brief excitement was cut short as he realized that the two were identical in every way. Everything down to the red prosthetic tail. He couldn’t even figure out which one was Toothless until the dragon ran up to him, his tongue out and begging for attention.

Hiccup eagerly greeted his friend, but was so confused by the Night Fury look alike he could only stare at Catia and the dragon next to her, asking for an explanation. “I thought Shifty was a-”

“Gronkle?” Catia finished for him, smiling slightly at his expression. “Yes, she did look like a Gronkle. Shifty is a Mockingwing. They were bred by hunters centuries ago in the hopes of creating a dragon that could recreate other breeds for them. Mockingwings are cross between Changewings and a much less known dragon, the Imitator, though it is now extinct.” Catia paused to stroke Shifty’s head, the dragon purring and leaning into her, then bounded over to Windshear and started sniffing every inch of the Razorwhip’s body.

“The Mockingwing is named for its primary defense,” Catia went on. “They mimic, or ‘mock,’ other species of dragons. Mockingwings, like Imitators, lay their eggs in the nest of another dragon. The only time a Mockingwing is seen in its regular form is at birth, and the first dragon it learns to mock is its surrogate mother. Shifty can contort her body to look like almost any other dragon her size. Mockingwings have cartilage instead of bones, and millions of tiny air pockets in her skin that can expand to make her look bigger or have the lumpy effect like a Gronkle.”

Hiccup watched curiously as Shifty closed her tail fins so close together they could hardly be seen. Her tail stared to elongate, growing thinner and spines stood up and into place. Short spikes on the leading edges of her wings appeared and two of her four toes on each paw retracted. Shifty’s eyes slowly changed from yellow to green, a thick eyelid shielding them. A horn began to form on her nose; the rest of her head elongating. She finally achieved the appearance of a black Razorwhip, and she nosed along her body, checking back and forth between herself and Windshear to see how she looked.

Apparently realizing that she was a different color, Shifty grunted and her skin, which was really teeny tiny scales, began to change. A metallic silver began to take over the black, almost as if someone had put a drop of paint into a cup of water, and the color was spreading throughout the liquid.

Hiccup was amazed at the Mockingwing’s abilities, but as much as he wanted to learn more, but wanted to get away before Catia freaked out. “I should be leaving,” he told her solemnly, preparing to mount his dragon.

“Before you do,” Catia said, her tone stopping him, “I would like that gold you promised. I have given you part of the prize, and I expect to have the other part in return.”

Hiccup’s face fell and his palms grew sweaty. He opened his mouth to give her a reply, but Catia just laughed softly and shook her head. “I know you don’t have any gold. I’m just messing with you.”

“What?” Hiccup’s genuine shock betrayed him; now she knew he didn’t have gold.

“Unless Berk is the richest nation in the archipelago, Viggo had all of your gold.”

“Had?” Could he really have spent it already?

Catia motioned for him to stay put and ran up to her hut. Several minutes passed, but she returned carrying a large chest with the Berk crest. She reached him and opened the top, revealing all of Berk’s gold—every last piece.

“I stole it from Viggo,” Catia explained seeing the look on Hiccup’s face. “But I have no use for it here. The gold is rightfully yours. Take it.”

Confused, Hiccup thanked her curtly, failing to return her brief smile. He mounted his dragon and set off, Windshear trailing behind; he worried Catia might be setting him up. It seemed so strange that she switched back and forth between sweet and savage so easily. Everything he thought he had learned about her seemed wrong now. He knew what Astrid had said about fake tears must be true, but what about fake kindness? Catia was such a good actress it was near impossible to tell whether she was genuine or not.

Whatever the case, he no longer cared. He was going home with his dragon and Berk’s gold, and if he never saw Catia Anastos again it wouldn’t bother him a bit. But with his luck, he was bound to see her again, and he knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay y'all, there you have it! Bluffing Beauty is complete. The series, however, is FAR FROM COMPLETE! So, even though I didn't leave on the world's worst cliffhanger, make sure you keep an eye out for the next story "Trust Me Not."
> 
> In the mean time, why not leave comments and kudos? Feel free to ask any questions about the stories, I'll do my best to answer!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> ~Spinofflady

**Author's Note:**

> Like what your reading? Let me know!
> 
> Don't like it? Tell me how I can improve!
> 
> I love hearing from you guys, so don't be afraid to speak up.  
> Thanks for reading!  
> ~Spinofflady


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